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Jason Spezza was named the top forward at the 2015 World Hockey Championship.

Not only did Spezza win gold with Team Canada, but he also led the entire tournament in scoring with six goals and 14 points. Brent Burns (Team Canada) was named the tournament's best defenseman, while Pekka Rinne (Finland) was named the tournament's top goaltender. May 17 - 5:46 PM

Jason Spezza scored one of Canada's two goals in a 2-0 win over the host Czech Republic at the IIHF World Hockey Championships.

Canada now advances to the gold medal game against the winner of the U.S./ Russia match scheduled to take place Saturday afternoon. Spezza has had a wonderful tournament as he leads all scorers with 14 points. Taylor Hall scored Canada's other goal, while Mike Smith earned the shutout setting aside 18 Czech shots. May 16 - 12:06 PM

Through Friday's off-day, Jason Spezza sits atop the scoring table at the World Hockey Championship.

Through eight games, the Dallas Stars center has five goals and 13 points for Team Canada. While one normally wouldn't combine NHL regular season and international stats, it's worth noting that through 90 combined games Spezza has 20 goals and 70 points. The last time Spezza recorded that many points during the NHL regular season was 2011-12 with Ottawa when he tied a career high with 34 goals and totaled 84 points in 80 games. May 15 - 10:24 PM

Jason Spezza didn't like his performance in his first season with Dallas.

However, he feels he will be better in 2015-16. "I think I was just more comfortable in the second half. I played better and understood where I was on the team," Spezza said. "You get to know the coach and you get to know the system. I think early on in the year there's a lot of trying to figure out guys and figure out who you're playing with. It's easy to put five names together for a power play, but until you play together you don't really know the little plays you have to make and who likes the puck where. It was definitely a learning process." He earned 17 goals and 62 points in 82 games this past campaign. Spezza believes in the potential of the Stars and he's looking forward to next year. May 13 - 3:52 PM

Depth Charts

Tyler Seguin, who dealt with a knee injury last season, is now skating without a brace.

Seguin's goal is not to use a brace going forward as he's heard that there's a danger of him becoming reliant on it if he just continues to use the brace. Seguin was using the brace during the 2015 World Championships and still scored nine goals in 10 games.

Jason Spezza was named the top forward at the 2015 World Hockey Championship.

Not only did Spezza win gold with Team Canada, but he also led the entire tournament in scoring with six goals and 14 points. Brent Burns (Team Canada) was named the tournament's best defenseman, while Pekka Rinne (Finland) was named the tournament's top goaltender.

Last season, he won 47.8 percent of his draws and this campaign he is winning 51.2 percent of the time. Eakin leads the Stars with 1,253 total faceoffs. Thanks to him, Jason Spezza and Vernon Fiddler, Dallas ranks eighth in the NHL in faceoff success.

Vernon Fiddler scored a goal and an assist in Friday's 4-2 win over Washington.

Fiddler picked up the primary assist on Colton Sceviour's go-ahead goal in the first period and he scored a goal of his own to extend Dallas' lead to 4-1. The 34-year-old is having a decent season considering the fact that he is a bottom-six defensive forward. Fiddler now has five points in his last four games, and he has 12 goals and 14 assists in 67 games.

"We still have a long time to go here before training camp and the season starts, so I am in no rush," Benn said. "I am going to take it day-by-day, nice and slow. I think the main thing is that I don’t want any setbacks. I am definitely happy with my progress." Benn is already skating while an earlier timetable suggested that wouldn't happen until August. He was dealing with hip problems for the better part of the 2014-15 campaign and still managed to score 35 goals and 87 points in 82 games.

Patrick Sharp said he was shocked when he found out he had been traded to the Dallas Stars.

"I knew it was coming … and it still comes as a shock," Sharp said. "When it actually happens, there are a lot of different things going on: You're trying to take care of your family and friends and your own personal situation. The conversation with Stan was a tough one, just like the one with (coach) Joel Quenneville was."

Dallas Stars and Team France forward Antoine Roussel leads the World Hockey Championship with 34 PIMs through five games.

France unfortunately has just one win during their five games. The rugged forward, who is still pointless in the tournament, had another nice season for the Stars. He posted 13 goals, 25 points, and 148 PIMs through 80 games this past season.

Travis Moen scored a goal and an assist in Saturday's 4-3 overtime win over Nashville.

Moen got the Stars on the board in the second period to tie the game at one and he also added an assist Colton Sceviour's third period goal. The 32-year-old has now scored in back-to-back games for Dallas. He has nine points in 42 games since being acquired from Montreal earlier this season. "He’s an effective player," coach Lindy Ruff said of Moen. "He’s smart, he knows how to play. He gets around the front of the net and he gets rewarded."

The Dallas Stars have re-signed Curtis McKenzie to a two-year contract.

No terms have been announced. The Dallas Stars and Curtis McKenzie are working towards a new contract.The 24-year-old got his first taste of NHL action this season. He posted four goals and five points in 36 games with Dallas, and six goals and 21 points in 31 games with Texas of the AHL.

Valeri Nichushkin was selected to represent Team Russia at the upcoming IIHF World Hockey Championships in the Czech Republic.

He missed most of the season following hip surgery but is a bright young talent the Russians want to see on the ice. Nichushkin makes for a nice sleeper pick in hockey pool drafts next season as he has the potential to register 50-plus points if he can stay healthy.

"I can already feel I have more motion," Hemsky said. "It's just been two months and I know I have a long way to go, but I can feel the difference." He had 11 goals and 32 points in 76 contests last season, which is well below what was expected of him. He noted that he had put a lot of pressure on himself last season, but 2015-16 feels different.

Colton Sceviour scored a goal and an assist in Saturday's 4-3 overtime win over Nashville.

The Stars got some solid production from their bottom-six forwards in this game. Not only did Sceviour have two points but so did Travis Moen. Sceviour picked up the only assist on Moen's second period goal. He then added a goal of his own in the third frame. The 25-year-old has eight goals and 25 points in 68 games this season.

John Klingberg was named to the NHL's All-Rookie Team for the 2014-15 season.

Klingberg was originally selected 131st overall by Dallas in 2010, but led all rookie defenders with 29 assists and 40 points in just 65 games last season. Klingberg also became the first rookie defender in franchise history to record a four-point game on Jan. 31st versus Winnipeg. The 22 year old also ranked third among rookie defenders in average ice time with 21:50.

Jason Demers notched his fifth goal of season and blocked five shots during Monday's 5-3 loss to Calgary.

Demers now has points in consecutive games, it's the third time this season he's had a multi-game point streak. Demers now owns five goals and 26 points to go along with his 78 blocks through 76 games with the Sharks and now Stars this season.

Stars GM Jim Nill thinks his team's young players will benefit from being around two-time Stanley Cup champion Johnny Oduya.

"I grew up in the Detroit organization. To win, you have to know how to win," Nill said. "It's a process. Our core is young, they’re going to be like sponges, they’re going to feed off this." Of course, before signing Oduya to a two-year, $7.5 million contract, Nill acquired his former and once again current teammate, Patrick Sharp, from Chicago. Sharp was part of all three of Chicago's recent Stanley Cup championships and played a key role in the Blackhawks' rise in the salary cap era. With both of them on the roster, Dallas is certainly a much more experienced team.

He recorded 10 assists in 51 games with the big club in 2014-15 and posted five points in 19 AHL contests with Texas. "Jokipakka thinks the game well and has the tools to grow into an extremely dependable player in the NHL," GM Jim Nill said. "Over the last season, he grew leaps and bounds and proved that he could play effectively at this level. We fully expect him to continue that growth and become a big part of our defensive unit in the years to come."

Nemeth had three assists in 22 games with Dallas in 2014-15. He also registered two assists in eight AHL contests. He suffered a severe arm laceration in October and that's the reason he ended up playing so little. The financial terms of his new contract weren't immediately available.

"He gives us a right-handed shot and a little bit of a more physical element, so I think we really have nice balance now in our group of young defensemen," Nill said. In his first full year as a pro, Johns scored four goals, 21 points, and added 44 penalty minutes in 51 games with Chicago's minor league team in Rockford. He also was tied for the AHL lead with a plus-30 rating last season.

Dallas Stars General Manager Jim Nill believes that his team is lucky to have two number one goaltenders on the roster.

Kari Lehtonen is back for the 2015-16 season, while the team went out and signed Antti Niemi this off-season. We just think having two elite goalies is going to make a big difference for us," said Nill. "We're lucky. It's manageable with our cap situation. We have the flexibility to do that and I really believe it's becoming a two-goalie league. It's hard for one goalie with all of this travel and back-to-backs. The league is so close. If you can win an extra two or three games because you have a rested, healthy, very competitive No. 1 goalie that you can put in any time is going to make a big difference."

Antti Niemi has signed a three-year contract with the Dallas Stars worth an average annual value of $4.5 million.

Niemi was acquired from the Sharks for a seventh-round draft pick. He posted a 31-23-7 record to go with a .914 save percentage and a 2.59 goals-against average in 61 games with San Jose last season. He is slated to share the crease with Kari Lehtonen in 2015-16.